Former Raleigh Mortgage Broker Sentenced to 42 Months in Prison for His Role in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

U.S. Attorney’s Office
March 31, 2014

Eastern District of North Carolina(919) 856-4530

RALEIGH—United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today before Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III, Mark Thomas Bowe, Jr., 56, of Jonesboro, Georgia, was sentenced to a 42-month term of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, on count one of an indictment charging Bowe with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349. Bowe was also ordered to pay $604,550.69 in restitution.

Count one of the indictment charged that between 2003 and 2008, Bowe was a licensed mortgage broker operating through mortgage companies operating on Rock Quarry Road in Raleigh. Bowe participated with others, including developer David Lewis Johnson, developer Arthur Lee Barnes, real estate broker Mark Henry Tkac, and attorney James Scott Taggart in a real estate flipping scheme which defrauded various banks and lenders. Johnson, Barnes, and Taggart were previously sentenced to prison for their role in the scheme. Tkac has not yet been sentenced.

Bowe participated in the scheme by, among other things, falsifying various aspects of loan applications that were submitted to banks and lenders to qualify buyers for mortgages related to properties sold by Johnson’s real estate company. Bowe falsified, among other things, the amount and source of the borrower’s income and assets, the existing debts of the borrower, and the borrower’s intent to occupy the property as a primary residence. In some instances, Bowe completed loan applications that falsely represented that the information contained within the application had been obtained from a telephonic interview when, in truth and fact, the borrower never spoke to Bowe in a telephonic interview or provided the information in the loan application.

Bowe and Johnson also promoted the scheme by deceiving and attempting to deceive lenders into believing that some borrowers held assets at an investment company, known as Mutual Southern Investments. Bowe and another conspirator supplied false verifications of deposit and false account statements purporting to show that borrowers held, in some instances, millions of dollars in assets, when in truth and fact, Mutual Southern Investments did not exist and the assets and asset statements were entirely fictitious.

Bowe and other participants in the scheme benefited by receiving kickbacks or payments out of the loan proceeds at the time of the loan closing. In some instances, Bowe received payments in excess of the amounts identified on the HUD-1 settlement statements that were supplied to the banks and lenders to compensate Bowe for his role in the scheme.

Ultimately, the borrowers defaulted on the loans brokered by Bowe, resulting in substantial losses to various banks and lenders. At sentencing, stipulated losses from various loans brokered by Bowe were found to total $604,550.69.

On April 4, 2013, Bowe was named in a four-count indictment filed by the grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina. On August 26, 2013, Bowe pleaded guilty to count one, which charged him with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William M. Gilmore represented the United States.